Hippolyta was the Queen of the Amazons, a nation of warrior women. Her tiny footsteps refer to the feet of hundreds of tiny metal and plastic soldiers.

Tuesday, 28 June 2016

Sir William Huntley-Palmer - an 18th century spy?

In an earlier post, we
discovered the English minor aristocrat and traveller Sir William
Huntley-Palmer. He was described as being "late of the 11th
Dragoons, who travelled widely in Savoy, Piedmont, Carinthia and
Hungary in the 1750s as some kind of undefined agent of the British
government."

Here, we have a chance
to discover a few more things about Captain Huntley-Palmer.

William Huntley-Palmer
was born in the county of Somerset in 1724. His parents were Sir
Arthur Huntley-Palmer of East Chewbury and Lady Arabella (née
Arabella Melchett of Underton) and he was born in the ancestral home,
Chewbury Manor.

His parents bought him a
commission as Cornet of Horse in the 4th Regiment of Horse when he
was 16 and he served in that regiment between 1741 and 1746, rising
to the rank of full Lieutenant. In 1746, following the Battle of
Culloden, he was offered a the chance to buy a captaincy in Kerr's
(later the 11th) Dragoons, which he accepted.

He remained with his
regiment until 1750, when he was seconded to the staff of a relative,
General Sir George Augustus Melchett for unspecified service. He
never resigned his commission, but it also seems to be the case that
he never returned to active service with his regiment.

In 1751, he travelled to
Carinthia and Savoy on behalf of the British government. He remained
in Europe, visiting Piedmont and Hungary in 1752 before arriving in
Syldavia in 1753. His movements then took him to Bavaria, Savoy again
and Austria before returning to Syldavia in 1756, taking up residence
in Klow. Documents in the Melchett Archive show regular
correspondence between Huntley-Palmer and his patron General
Melchett. In 1757 Huntley-Palmer was offered a position in the
Syldavian service, in a military capacity. Seeking advice from "M"
(as the Huntley-Palmer Papers refer to General Melchett), he accepted
the role and travelled around the country, visiting various
regimental headquarters, fortresses and garrisons.

The
Melchett Archive contains several letters from "H-P" that
refer to annexes in a now lost cypher. A plain text of one of these
survives, containing an assessment of the capabilities of the
Syldavian army. In it, H-P writes that the army is “reasonably
well turned out, of tolerable quality and stout manners” but
records that “the regiments of light Horse are impetuous,
difficult to restrain and prone to looting”. Other passages
suggest that H-P also played a more active role in the training and
drilling of Syldavian cavalry regiments. It also appears to be the
case that H-P spent several months in 1759 in the garrisons and towns
along the eastern border with Borduria, where he records in his
journals that "On several occasions my engagements across the
river became somewhat troublesome and on more than one occasion my
life was at risk. Only the stout and steady behaviour of our troops
prevented my capture." He writes elsewhere of "Business
on the islands of Polishoff" and "Clandestine
adventures in the cities of Peshod, Salinkari and Ugaljigrad".
A heavily redacted document in the Archive refers to "H-P's
journey as plenipotentiary to the Grand Turk"
and "stirring
up unpleasantness amongst the Borduri".

Whatever
is being hinted at clearly served the interests of the Syldavian
Crown as, in 1761, Huntley-Palmer was created a Grand Knight of Order
of the Black Pelican and was awarded the honorary colonelcy of the
Piskot Cuirassier Regiment the following year. It seems that he was
also awarded estates and a pension by King Ottokar IX.

In
his journals, H-P alludes to several romantic dalliances but in 1763
he became betrothed to the 22-year-old Doroteja Svinjske-Klobase, a
member of a noble family related to the Syldavian Royal House of
Almaszout.

We know little more of H-P's activities in Syldavia, apart from a
suggestion that he was involved in the thwarting of a plot against
the life of the King and that there seems to have been more than one
attempt made on his own life.

In 1764, H-P and his
wife travelled via Dbrnouk to Venice, on Syldavian official business
and he took up residence in Trieste the following year. The Melchett
Archive suggests that at this time, H-P was acting on orders from "M"
and performing some kind of British government business. While in
Trieste, H-P fought and won a duel against a certain Count
Strabomytes of Kardouk and became involved in something that is only
recorded as "The Bazarov Affair". In 1766, William
and Doroteja became parents for the first time when their son James
was born, followed in 1767 by a daughter, Caroline.

In 1768, Sir Arthur
Huntley-Palmer died and William and Doroteja returned to England,
where they took up residence in Chewbury Manor, where they proceeded
to raise a large family.

In 1771, Sir William was
elected to Parliament in the Whig interest as Member for East
Chewbury.

A few things about me

Yes, I am a female wargamer. There aren't many of us around, but we make up in quality what we lack in numbers.
I mainly play games using the TooFatLardies rules; Chain of Command, I Ain't Been Shot, Mum and Sharp Practice version 2. I've also got the Field Of Glory Renaissance rules but I'm not impressed by them.
I'm currently playing Alien Squad Leader and enjoying that a lot and I'm also getting into Frostgrave, playing a bit of HoTT and developing an interest in Cthulhu games and A Very British Civil War. I'm definitely enjoying painting the larger figures. Now, really liking Congo a lot and looking to start playing Saga now the version 2 rules are available.